Elani woke the next morning to the soft sound of rainfall drumming on the cavern’s distant ceiling, a constant, reassuring sound that always carried with it a soft murmur of home. The grand, multi-chambered cavern that housed shelter was sunk deep into a hill, high enough from the waterline that is was safe (for now) from the swollen river and its tributaries. But the rain was unending, and there was a constant flow of water through the soft, porous rock that made up the cavern’s walls and ceilings.

I’ve collated a cross-section of cinema’s biggest, boldest and bleakest looks at the end of the world.

From huge Hollywood blockbusters to low-budget big-thrills independent films, the 50 post apocalyptic movies covered here offer a thorough grounding in the genre’s finest creations: from the classic zombie apocalypse storyline to nuclear Armageddon, and even a handful of weird and wonderful end of the world scenarios.